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Champagne, Claret, Burgundy, Hock, Chablis
.. here come the names dear to the lover ofvintages
rich and rare; a cavalcade of
history from the sunny vine-
Let Us Consider clad hills of France, beneath
_ which he in sleepy seclusion
W i IN Jci
toy red-roofed villages ...
from the Rhineland, where
pinnacled castles of fairy tale
splendour look down upon those vineyards planted
by the Romans somewhere about the second century,
and later carried on by the monks ...where wines
of fine quahty have been produced for centuries.
Burgundy .. .from the sun-drenched slopes of the
Cote d'Or,wine ofkingly red and exquisite bouquet ..
nowadays one ofthe most popular oftable wines in the
Enghsh home. Burgundy was introduced into the
British Isles in the year 1512 by Louis XII of France
who, by way of a graceful comphment,sent a painted
ship containing a rich cargo of this wine in puncheons
to James IV of Scotland. Connoisseurs will gratefully
toast the memory of such a monarch and a happv
thought ...
Champagne ... a blithesome wine, sponsored first
in this country by a blithesome king, Charles II.
And so we could go on ... tracing a finger over the
map ofhistory to find the tendrils ofthe vine delicately
curling around the court and social life of a dozen
centuries. But let us instead (this being a guide and
not a history book) proceed to survey each and all of
the more important and familiar wines offormal and
informal occasions.
BURGUNDY comes from the Cote d'Or, a district
of thirty odd miles in length, l5ting between Dijon
and Chalon-sur-Saone, and many beautiful wines
of famous^ vintages have emanated from this
bountiful district of France, and have been,and still
are, much appreciated by all wine connoisseurs